November 02, 2006

K-State Keepsakes: The Truman Capote Connection

In Cold Blood by Truman Capote was published in hardback by Random House in 1966 after it was serialized in The New Yorker the previous year. The best seller, focusing on the murder of the Clutter family in Holcomb, Kansas, continues to inspire books and movies. Two of the more successful by-products are Capote: A Biography (1988 with paperback editions in 2001 and 2005) by George Clark, and the film, Capote (2005), that was nominated for five academy awards, including best actor in a leading role won by Philip Seymour Hoffman.

In spite of this notoriety, few are aware of Capote’s connection
with K-State and Manhattan during and after the writing of In Cold
Blood. This relationship began soon after the death of the Clutter
family in 1959 when Capote decided to do a piece for The New Yorker
magazine on the gruesome event. Recognizing that it would be difficult
for him to arrive in the small community to interview residents about
the murders without assistance from others to pave the way, he went to
his publisher, Bennett Cerf, for advice. As it turned out, Cerf, the
co-founder of Random House, had recently visited K-State to give a
lecture and meet with English classes. He considered James McCain, the
president, a friend as a result of the time they had spent together in
Manhattan. When Cerf called McCain to ask if he knew the Clutter
family and if one of their writers could visit him on the way to the
murder site, McCain responded, “The Clutters were my close personal
friends, I know everybody in Garden City” (the seat of Finney County,
not far from Holcomb). When Cerf informed McCain who the author was he
responded, “Truman Capote? Coming to Kansas?” McCain told Cerf if
Capote would spend an evening with the English department he would
“…give him letters to half the people in Garden City.” Cerf accepted
the invitation for Capote!

Capote arrived in Manhattan on November 19, 1959 only four days
after the murder! He was accompanied by his long time friend, Harper
Lee (“Nelle”), the author of To Kill a Mockingbird (slated
for publication the next year) to help with the endeavor. President
McCain arranged for a luncheon in the K-State Union that included
mostly people from the School of Agriculture who had known Herbert
Clutter. Earle Davis, chair of the English Department, also attended.
Cerf recounted how McCain told him that when he met Capote he was
wearing a pink velvet coat. After Capote announced, “I bet I’m the
first man who has ever come to Manhattan, Kansas wearing a Dior
jacket,” McCain replied, “I’ll go you one better, Mr. Capote. You’re
probably the first man or woman who ever came to Manhattan wearing a
Dior jacket.”

According to Davis, Capote and Lee stayed at the Wareham Hotel
where he went to pick up Capote for an evening in the Union Ball Room
with members of the English Department. When Davis arrived at the
hotel, Capote invited him to his room for a drink and pulled a whiskey
bottle out of one of two trunks he brought with him in case he couldn’t
buy liquor in Kansas, as he had been told. Arriving at the Union
wearing a florid scarf, pink shirt, bright orange red jacket, and
button-shoes with turned-up toes, Davis’ apprehension about Capote’s
drinking, clothes, and mannerisms soon dissipated as he used stories
about literary figures in New York, and other topics, to charm the
group. According to the account that McCain gave Cerf of Capote’s
visit, when Capote and Lee left the next morning for Garden City, “the
entire [English] faculty got up to see them off. Mrs. McCain and I got
up too.”

In an article he wrote for the Manhattan Mercury in 1984, “Memories
of Capote,” Davis doesn’t mention other visits to Manhattan by Capote
in 1959 or later (Capote died in 1984). He states that after Capote
left town that morning in 1959, “he never stopped by on his way back.”
Local lore has it that Capote spent a summer with Davis in his house
at 1711 Fairchild Ave. working on his book, but that cannot be
substantiated. It would appear that Davis would have mentioned this
residency in his “memories” piece (and it is difficult to imagine
Capote staying in Kansas for an extended period!). Davis’ son,
Charles, does not recall his parents ever mentioning that Capote stayed
in the family home, although he does remember hearing that Capote did
stay in the Wareham Hotel but it is unclear if this was during his
visit in 1959 or at a later time. One reason the book was not
completed and published prior to 1966 was the fact the two murderers
were not executed until April 15, 1965 after spending five years on
death row in Lansing, Kansas. Written in a literary form Capote called
“the non-fiction novel,” bringing the crime to a close was an essential
part of the book.

In addition to visiting Kansas shortly after the Clutter family was
murdered, Capote had other occasions to visit the state during the
writing of the book and for the filming of a movie that opened in
1967. Bill Brown, editor of the Garden City Telegram
at the time the book was written, and later a professor of journalism
at K-State, recalled that Capote was in Garden City “off and on for six
years.” This included a return shortly after In Cold Blood was
published to attend a reception in his honor at the public library, but
not before giving a reading to 3,500 students at the University of
Kansas! He was followed by representatives of NBC news who were
filming a story, “Capote Returns to Kansas.” It is not known if he
stopped in Manhattan.

To date evidence does not exist to prove that Capote made other visits
to Manhattan, but it is likely that he did. According to letters
between Capote and McCain in the University Archives, the two remained
in contact for several years. The correspondence reveals the desire by
both parties for Capote to come to Manhattan. In one letter, Capote
explains that he had to leave [Garden City] sooner than expected and
could not come to Manhattan, and in another he states that he will be
coming to the state “within the next six months” and that he would be
“happy to meet anyone you wish” but he wasn’t “equipped to address a
dinner,” perhaps a reference to his experience at K-State in 1959!
Capote’s letters also show his kindness towards Mrs. McCain, one ending
with “All good wishes to Janet.” It is clear that Capote valued their
friendship and the
assistance that McCain gave him while writing In Cold Blood. Among the
few individuals that he singled out in the book’s acknowledgments, “Dr.
James McCain, President of Kansas State University,” is listed first.

Sources: James A. McCain Papers, University Archives; In Cold Blood: A True Account of a Multiple Murder and Its Consequences by Truman Capote; Capote: A Biography by George Clarke; At Random: The Reminiscences of Bennett Cerf;
“Journalism Professor Remembers Meeting Capote,” Kansas State
Collegian, August 29, 1984; “Memories of Capote” by Earle Davis,
Manhattan Mercury, September 2, 1984.--Tony Crawford, University Archivist